Timofey Pnin is a Russian who fled from the wars during the first half of the 20th century. First to Europe, then to the US. He has a community of like-minded men and women around the globe, many of whom he knew (or knew of) in Russia.His marriage collapsed when his wife found another man—and she us...
I don't reread books often as a rule. But I reread this one almost once a year with startling regularity. Though it lacks the famous Nabokovian puzzle structure of Pale Fire or the intense psychological horrors & delights of Lolita, Pnin is my favourite of his works. This book is Nabokov at his most...
A feast of language and humour. Nabokov feels every pea under innumerable mattresses, and makes us share in his delicious sensitivity. Pnin is a tissue of stereotypes, so cunningly fashioned that like a true human he transcends them all, inhabiting his rich identity with warmth, vigour and exasperat...
This is my third book by Nabakov. I had heard that it really formed a set with Lolita and Pale Fire and addressed similar themes.It does do that but not as well as the other two books. It also is about the difference between appearance and reality. Pnin at first appears to be a buffoon but he is ...
Nabakov's mastery of the English language and of English prose is astounding, considering English is his second (or third?) language, and that he left Russia at 18 for Europe, left there for America when he was 41, and published this book a little more than a decade after that. Authors of contempor...
The accumulation of consecutive rooms in his memory now resembled those displays of grouped elbow chairs on show, and beds, and lamps, and inglebooks which, ignoring all space-time distinctions, commingle in the soft light of a furniture store beyond which it snows, and the dusk deepens, and nobody ...
Perhaps four stars is too generous, given the less than enthusiastic response for this book by seasoned Nabokophiles, but I suspect my rating is because this is my first Nabokov and I'm still somewhat drunk on his prose, much like a 13 year-old would be off a bottle of Paul Masson (or Orson Welles, ...
I did not like this at all. It was mean. It was nasty. Sardonic humor. Here we have a guy, The language is detailed and descriptive, but about events or people you either don't know about or couldn't care less about. Much of the time I was totally bored. I don't like the narrator of the story or ho...
I really liked it. At the beginning I didn't know whether to like or pity Pnin, but as I kept reading I grew fond of his clumsiness and all those comical and pathetic situations he faces. Nabokov's art of portrait keeps amazing me. Not only Pnin, but also minor characters are beautifully drawn.I wis...
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